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George Orwell quotes

146 quotations, each verified against its source and credited to the work it comes from — the wording as George Orwell wrote or said it, not as the internet passes it around. Page 1 of 6.

Illustrated portrait of George Orwell

How these quotes were checked

How we decide whether a quote is genuine

George Orwell's name is a warrant that gets stamped onto sentences he never wrote. A line enters this collection only when its wording has been checked against a printed text — here, the essay texts published by The Orwell Foundation, the estate's own edition of record.

The two most famous “Orwell” quotations are both fakes, and both have been traced by attribution researchers. They are documented below, next to what he actually wrote.

Four famous Hemingway quotes, fact-checked

A sentence linked to Hemingway may be exact, shortened, remembered by someone else, or unsupported. Each label below explains what the available evidence actually proves.

Misattributed

“In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act.”

Nothing like this sentence appears in Orwell's books, essays, letters, or journalism. Quote Investigator finds no linkage to Orwell before the 1980s, decades after his death in 1950; the earliest known appearances credit no author at all. It circulates under his name because it sounds like a summary of Nineteen Eighty-Four — but the summary is somebody else's.

  • — Garson O'Toole, In a Time of Universal Deceit — Telling the Truth Is a Revolutionary Act (2013)
Misattributed

“People sleep peaceably in their beds at night only because rough men stand ready to do violence on their behalf.”

Not Orwell's sentence. Quote Investigator traces the wording to a 1993 Washington Times column by Richard Grenier, who was paraphrasing his own gloss on Orwell without quotation marks; later reprintings promoted the paraphrase into a direct quotation. Orwell did write, in a 1942 essay on Kipling, that civilized men can only be highly civilized while others guard them — the thought is related, the famous sentence is not his.

  • — Garson O'Toole, People Sleep Peaceably in Their Beds at Night Only Because Rough Men Stand Ready to Do Violence on Their Behalf (2011)
Verified

“If liberty means anything at all it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear.”

Genuine, with a story attached: Orwell wrote it in “The Freedom of the Press,” the preface he drafted in 1945 for Animal Farm after four publishers turned the book down. The preface went unpublished in his lifetime and first appeared in the Times Literary Supplement in 1972. The Foundation's text prints no comma after “at all,” though many reprintings add one.

  • — George Orwell, The Freedom of the Press (1972)

“Politics and the English Language,” Horizon, April 1946 quotes

Political language – and with variations this is true of all political parties, from Conservatives to Anarchists – is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind.
— George Orwell, “Politics and the English Language,” Horizon, April 1946
In our age there is no such thing as ‘keeping out of politics’. All issues are political issues, and politics itself is a mass of lies, evasions, folly, hatred and schizophrenia.
— George Orwell, “Politics and the English Language,” Horizon, April 1946
It becomes ugly and inaccurate because our thoughts are foolish, but the slovenliness of our language makes it easier for us to have foolish thoughts.
— George Orwell, “Politics and the English Language,” Horizon, April 1946

“The Freedom of the Press,” written 1945, first published 1972 quotes

If liberty means anything at all it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear.
— George Orwell, “The Freedom of the Press,” written 1945, first published 1972

“Why I Write,” Gangrel, Summer 1946 quotes

Good prose is like a windowpane.
— George Orwell, “Why I Write,” Gangrel, Summer 1946
Every line of serious work that I have written since 1936 has been written, directly or indirectly, against totalitarianism and for democratic socialism, as I understand it.
— George Orwell, “Why I Write,” Gangrel, Summer 1946
Writing a book is a horrible, exhausting struggle, like a long bout of some painful illness. One would never undertake such a thing if one were not driven on by some demon whom one can neither resist or understand.
— George Orwell, “Why I Write,” Gangrel, Summer 1946

A Clergyman's Daughter quotes

Faith vanishes, but the need for faith remains the same as before.
— George Orwell, A Clergyman's Daughter (1935), Chapter 5
It is a mysterious thing, the loss of faith—as mysterious as faith itself.
— George Orwell, A Clergyman's Daughter (1935), Chapter 4
Life, if the grave really ends it, is monstrous and dreadful.
— George Orwell, A Clergyman's Daughter (1935), Chapter 5
It is all or nothing. Either life on earth is a preparation for something greater and more lasting, or it is meaningless, dark, and dreadful.
— George Orwell, A Clergyman's Daughter (1935), Chapter 5
Thou shalt not lose thy job.
— George Orwell, A Clergyman's Daughter (1935), Chapter 4
The fees come first, and everything else comes afterwards.
— Mrs Creevy (dialogue) · George Orwell, A Clergyman's Daughter (1935), Chapter 4
So long as schools are run primarily for money, things like this will happen.
— George Orwell, A Clergyman's Daughter (1935), Chapter 4
You stick to the Christian scheme of things, but you leave Paradise out of it.
— Mr Warburton (dialogue) · George Orwell, A Clergyman's Daughter (1935), Chapter 5
…it's the things that happen inside you that matter.
— Dorothy Hare (dialogue) · George Orwell, A Clergyman's Daughter (1935), Chapter 5
Once a priest always a priest.
— Mr Tallboys (dialogue) · George Orwell, A Clergyman's Daughter (1935), Chapter 3

Animal Farm quotes

Man is the only creature that consumes without producing.
— Old Major (dialogue) · George Orwell, Animal Farm (1945), Chapter I
All men are enemies. All animals are comrades.
— Old Major (dialogue) · George Orwell, Animal Farm (1945), Chapter I
The life of an animal is misery and slavery: that is the plain truth.
— Old Major (dialogue) · George Orwell, Animal Farm (1945), Chapter I
The others said of Squealer that he could turn black into white.
— George Orwell, Animal Farm (1945), Chapter II
It is for YOUR sake that we drink that milk and eat those apples.
— Squealer (dialogue) · George Orwell, Animal Farm (1945), Chapter III
I will work harder!
— Boxer (dialogue) · George Orwell, Animal Farm (1945), Chapter III
Donkeys live a long time. None of you has ever seen a dead donkey.
— Benjamin (dialogue) · George Orwell, Animal Farm (1945), Chapter III
Bravery is not enough. Loyalty and obedience are more important.
— Squealer (dialogue) · George Orwell, Animal Farm (1945), Chapter V

From the books

Every book with a quote collection of its own, each line verified against the text.

Questions about George Orwell quotes

Did George Orwell say “in a time of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act”?

No. The sentence appears nowhere in his work, and attribution researchers find no link to Orwell before the 1980s — he died in 1950. It circulates under his name because it sounds like a moral of Nineteen Eighty-Four.

Did Orwell say “rough men stand ready to do violence” so people can sleep at night?

No. The wording comes from a 1993 newspaper column by Richard Grenier that paraphrased Orwell without quotation marks; reprintings turned the paraphrase into a quotation. Orwell's related, genuine remark — in a 1942 essay on Rudyard Kipling — is that civilized men can only be highly civilized while other men guard them.

What is George Orwell's most famous real quotation?

From the essays, probably “If liberty means anything at all it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear,” written in 1945 for an Animal Farm preface that stayed unpublished until 1972. From the novels, Nineteen Eighty-Four's “Big Brother is watching you” and Animal Farm's “All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others.”

What did Orwell say about political language?

In “Politics and the English Language” (1946): “Political language – and with variations this is true of all political parties, from Conservatives to Anarchists – is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind.” The popular short version drops the aside that indicts every party.

Why did Orwell say he wrote?

In “Why I Write” (1946) he answered directly: “Every line of serious work that I have written since 1936 has been written, directly or indirectly, against totalitarianism and for democratic socialism, as I understand it.” The same essay gives his standard for style: “Good prose is like a windowpane.”

References

References

The sources below are the editions, archives, and full-text searches used to verify the quotations on this page. Every line was checked against one or more of them before it appeared here.

  1. 1Politics and the English Language

    Essays
    Horizon, April 1946; text at The Orwell Foundation, 1946
    Used for

    Published analysis and historical context used in preparing the George Orwell page.

    View source

  2. 2Why I Write

    Essays
    Gangrel, Summer 1946; text at The Orwell Foundation, 1946
    Used for

    Published analysis and historical context used in preparing the George Orwell page.

    View source

  3. 3The Freedom of the Press

    Essays
    Written 1945 as a preface for Animal Farm; first published in the Times Literary Supplement, 1972; text at The Orwell Foundation, 1972
    Used for

    Published analysis and historical context used in preparing the George Orwell page.

    View source

  1. 4In a Time of Universal Deceit — Telling the Truth Is a Revolutionary Act

    Website
    Quote Investigator, 24 February 2013, 2013
    Used for

    Web source consulted for documented facts and historical context presented on the George Orwell page.

    View source

  2. 5People Sleep Peaceably in Their Beds at Night Only Because Rough Men Stand Ready to Do Violence on Their Behalf

    Website
    Quote Investigator, 7 November 2011, 2011
    Used for

    Web source consulted for documented facts and historical context presented on the George Orwell page.

    View source
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